Thank You For Reminding Me
by MsAnimanga
Summary: Byron may be dating Maura, but it is evident from the start that her relationship with Jane is not just a friendly one.  From Byron's perspective. Rizzles.


**I realize that I have a ton of drabbles to finish, but as always, this story attacked me and I had to write it. I have no clue what possessed me to write from Slucky's side of the whole ordeal, but here it is. I still don't forgive him for saying that Maura is merely a pathologist. Reviews make my heart happy. Enjoy.**

It was obvious from the start. The very moment he walked into Jane's hospital room to see a very distraught Maura Isles clutching a very unconscious Jane's hand, he should have known how things would turn out.

The ME had asked about Jane's condition the moment that he walked in. The need and worry in her voice had instantly lead him to the conclusion that the stunning woman was more than friends with the incapacitated detective.

Maura hardly left Jane's room in the weeks that the detective spent in the hospital bed. Day after day, the ME would be at her side when Slucky came in, chatting with him for a few minutes as he checked the progress of Jane's healing side.

It was clear to Byron that Maura was an intelligent woman, and the fact that she was an ME and not a surgeon or practicing doctor herself surprised him at first.

"You're a medical examiner, then? I'd heard that you operated on Jane's brother…" Byron scribbled a few notes on his clipboard, looking up to see that Maura was staring at Jane yet again, as though her eyes would bring the woman our of her medically induced coma.

"I did. Jane asked me to. I usually don't treat living patients, you see. I'm the chief medical examiner at BPD, and Jane and I became such great friends in our time there….I just couldn't let Frankie die on that table when she asked…" Maura trailed off, tears misting her eyes. It was clear that Maura was still suffering from the emotional toils of the shooting. Byron was no psychologist, but the way that her face fell at the mention of that day made it clear to him that seeing her girlfriend on the edge of death had hurt her.

"I see…well, you did a pretty good job patching him up, for a pathologist." He hadn't noticed Maura flinch at his comment, as he continued scribbling notes.

"I did my best, given the circumstances, Byron." Maura glanced up at the surgeon fleetingly before turning to watch Jane once again.

"I'm sure you did. Well, I'll be back for another evaluation tomorrow." Byron turned to leave, nodding at the 'thank you' from Maura as he walked through the door.

* * *

><p>The last day of Jane's stay in the hospital, Maura insisted on taking Jane to her home, explaining that Jane wouldn't want to go home with her overprotective mother for the months that she would be recovering.<p>

"Right. Well, we'll have to have Jane sign off on it, too." Byron explained, though he was sure that Jane would be fine with the arrangement. Angela Rizzoli had been by often, and he had nearly torn his hair out the one time that Maura had left them alone in the room together.

When Jane woke up from her nap- the pain medication that he had her on tended to pull her in and out of sleep often- she signed the necessary paperwork (after arguing for a while that she didn't need anybody to take care of her, of course.)

Byron was glad to finally have Jane out of his hair. She was a gruff patient that often complained when he checked her healing scars. She hated the food served at the hospital and constantly complained about the scratchy gown she wore. He could only imagine what the nurses had to go through every day.

"We're healing up nicely, I see." Slucky observed, as Jane sat upright in the wheel chair, swatting at Maura's hands when she tried to push her through the door of the room.

"Yeah,_ I'm_ doing much better. I don't know how Maura's feeling, you should ask her if you want to know if _we're_ feeling okay." Jane rolled her eyes- she mocked his use of the word "we" often, and it was really beginning to get on his nerves.

"Jane, be nice." Maura gave up on pushing the chair and allowed Jane to wheel herself into the hallway, turning to Byron before following Jane.

"Byron, can I speak to you for a moment?" The ME smiled sweetly at him, glancing slightly in Jane's direction before facing him fully.

"Of course, Maura. Did you have any questions about Jane's treatment while she's recovering?" He was fully prepared to go over the instructions once again- Maura really did like to be thorough when it came to Jane's treatment.

"Oh, no, I have detailed notes on that already. I was wondering…would you like to go to dinner sometime?"

"What?" The surgeon was truly baffled by the invitation, his face a mask of confusion.

"I-I was wondering if you would like to…" Maura appeared to be fumbling with her words. It was clear, then, that Maura was sincerely asking him to have dinner- quite possibly a date.

She was beautiful, and intelligent, and perfect in every way, it seemed. Byron Slucky was not an advocate of infidelity, however, and he would not be involved in such a situation.

"Maura, you're a very nice woman, and I would love to, but…what about Jane?" He would have never pegged Maura as the type of woman to cheat on someone, especially not on Jane, she seemed to be so loyal to her.

"Jane? Oh, she wouldn't mind, she's my best friend, she will surely understand. I'm not aware of any best friend rule that you can't date one another's surgeons…there is one rule about exes, I did research on surgeons, however, and there is no such restriction." Maura explained.

Byron wasn't sure what was going on here, but Maura had already addressed Jane several times as her "friend" or "best friend". He had decided, then, that he was being silly and reading too far into the relationship between the two women. He had accepted Maura's invitation to dinner, and continued to date her after that first night. Despite his initial gut feeling, he allowed himself to fall for Maura Isles.

* * *

><p>Byron was beginning to hate that Jane appeared to be at Maura's as often as he was. The pushy detective had just left Maura's house, rousing something in the ME.<p>

They were arguing over Jane's recovery, yet again. There wasn't a day that went by that Maura didn't ask why Jane was not healing well, why Jane's scar still pained her, why Jane wasn't being herself.

Maura had grown increasingly more distressed lately, and Byron tried to ignore the fact that her demeanor had changed around the same time that the detective struck up a relationship with her old friend.

He pushed away the idea that she might be jealous- just as he shrugged off Jane's unnecessary hostility toward him, telling himself that it was her way of coping with the physical pain that she was going through. He was her surgeon, and as such, she blamed him for the constant pain in her side. It had nothing to do with Maura, he reasoned.

He could no longer ignore Maura's insistence and preoccupation with Jane, however. This argument was quickly escalating, and he knew that if she persisted, he may say something that he would regret.

"You don't know her. You know, she had a dislocated shoulder, and she still tackled a 200-pound suspect to the ground." The ME chuckled, that familiar light in her eyes as she spoke about the detective. It was frustrating that she looked that way when she spoke about Jane- she never got that look when she talked to Byron, or when she introduced him to her friends.

And her anecdote irked him- it wasn't as though knowing Jane's brash tendencies gave her some insight on her slow recovery.

"Are we questioning my opinion?" It hurt, that Maura would insist that he had done something wrong, made some mistake in his patient care. She knew that he did his best, she had asked him to since Jane was her best friend.

"Well, there could be another component. The mind is powerful. She had a trauma…" Maura was searching for a reason that he couldn't give her, and it was obvious that she wouldn't back down any time soon. He should have known, it was Jane that he had treated, the one person that Maura would go against him for.

"You're merely a pathologist, and she had expert care from me, renowned trauma surgeon." Byron attempted to reason with her- she was, after all, just a pathologist. She was an extremely intelligent one, of course, and most likely capable of much more than what she performed at her profession. But her constant suggestions that he was mistaken caused the words to slip before he could take them back.

"Are you talking about yourself in the third person?" There it was- the mocking of his way of speaking that was so characteristic of Jane. It was only a matter of time before Maura picked up on it, too.

"Are we angry?" Byron attempted to joke, but it was clear that it was too late. Maura was, indeed, angry, and she took his cup of orange juice hastily.

"We are. Thank you. For reminding me why I don't date surgeons." Maura shoved his briefcase into his gut with a force that she never used around him. He backed away, head bowed.

"And thank you, Maura, for reminding me why I don't date people that are taken." Byron looked up at her, knowing already that she would have that confused look upon her face.

"Byron, I don't know what you mean by that, but you need to lea-"

"You know very well what I mean, Maura. As much as you may not acknowledge it, or you may not realize it, you are taken. You belong to Jane, and she belongs to you. I don't know why I ever bothered. Don't worry, I'm a professional, I won't treat Jane any differently because of this. I just hope for both of your sakes that you figure things out. It can't be very well for her recovery, or for anyone else that you bring into this." And with that, Byron stormed out the door, briefcase in hand.


End file.
